Iranian men don hijabs in solidarity with women

Iranian men are adopting head scarfs in support of wives, family members and friends, as part of a campaign against a national law requiring women to cover their heads in public.

The #MeninHijab movement, initiated by New York-based Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad and documented by Facebook group My Stealthy Freedom, aims to defy Iranian government regulations dictating that women must wear the garment when outdoors.

While the wearing of the hijab is not mandatory according to some interpretations of Islamic texts, the government enforced the practice following the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

An video posted to the Facebook page reveals how state-sponsored advertisements have been used to compare unveiled women to “spoiled food”.

It is accompanied by photos of men wearing the hijab and quotes criticising the dictatorial regulation.

One participant in the movement challenges the claim that women who expose their hair are placing themselves at risk from unwanted sexual advances from men.

“Really? This is for the safety of our women?” he comments.

“You have the option of not looking if someone’s hair provokes your feelings,” another man adds.

Others have taken issue with the government’s focus on personal dress at the expense of other more “important” national issues.

“If only the hijab were the only problem in our country, as the authorities would like us to believe,” one person is quoted as saying.

“It is as if they have hypnotised our brains with a black piece of cloth and they only want us to believe that hijab is the most important issue in our country."

The movement comes amid a recent crackdown on women’s dress by Iran’s so-called “morality police”.

Iran has been widely criticised for its human rights abuses and for the “repressive” powers of security and intelligence forces.